Writer of Creative Nonfiction

From Green to Gray

My little seaside city is a microcosm of the world. The problems that face my community in Wilmington are the same ones we struggle with on a state, national, and global scale. Specifically, I’m thinking about growth: there are more and more people moving here every day, but our peninsula is finite. There is only so far you can go on the land before you run into water. The same is true of everywhere else, but here it’s more pronounced. So with more and more people come more and more houses, buildings, and infrastructure, obviously. But at some point, we will run out of space to put it all. And in the meantime, Wilmington turns from green to gray, with all of our natural places vanishing under concrete and pavement.

How do we find a balance? Both colors are necessary to our modern lives, but too much of one and our people suffer. With concrete comes culture and convenience, but wild spaces offers us something we cannot get anywhere else- true open freedom. Our lives (or at least mine – I can only speak from personal experience) are found at the play between the two; If we cannot escape into the refuge found on the other side of the coin, our spirits become dulled. Green and grey are like modern Yin and yang.

This short essay raises these questions, and more. Even if you don’t live in my fair city, I’d be willing to bet the same shift is happening near you. I see it everywhere I go. It’s the defining characteristic of this epoch of human existence- at least on the landscape. The colors of the world we live in are changing. Whether it’s for better or worse remains to be seen. I have my own opinions; I won’t bludgeon you with them here. But the fact remains.